SasuSaku: You Healed My Heart
by Echo-of-the-Wind
Summary: The bitterness of regret...the things you wish you could have done, the things you should have done. The first rule of life: don't hesitate, and the second? Don't regret. \\Oneshot//


**Disclaimer: NARUTO DOES _NOT_ BELONG TO ME. -sniffs-**

**Sasuke&Sakura: You Healed My Heart**

Sasuke stared at a slender cherry tree in full bloom. Underneath the tree was a gravestone. Though Sasuke didn't go any closer, he knew whose name was engraved on that stone. Memories... memories...That day he came back to the Leaf Village to--well, he didn't know what he went there to do....but somehow....maybe he wanted to see his friends again, to open his frozen heart to the warmth of the golden days of Team 7.

It was beyond his imagination that Sakura had changed so much. She was so much stronger, and she no longer cared about Sasuke- or so it seemed.

~~_**Flashback**_~~

_"Sakura Haruno." Sasuke murmured her name. They had stood there for two minutes, maybe, but to him it already seemed like a thousand years. Light and dark together- day and night. He was hard and cold after his family died, and she, still filled with the warmth and light of spring. Like her name. Sakura Haruno._

_"Sasuke Uchiha." Sakura answered. It could have been only a second...but Sasuke didn't think so._

_"Missed me?" Sasuke smirked. But his heart was still as dead and as cold- the same as when it had hardened years ago. But beneath his misery he felt a new softening of the heart....like the melting feeling that being part of Team Seven had given him.__Sakura glared. _

_"Maybe." she answered softly. "But I don't love you anymore, Sasuke. I could never love a killer." Even as she said this, Sasuke could hear something cracking. It was her heart, breaking into a million tiny pieces. But Sakura held her tears in. Cherry blossoms did not cry, and neither would she._

_"I am not a killer." Sasuke said. "I am not." Though his voice was soft, the breeze carried his words to Sakura's ears._

_"Maybe you aren't, but maybe you are." Sakura replied. She stuck her hands in her pockets and strode toward a cherry tree. Its pink blossoms were falling; spring was almost over. "Many years ago..." Sakura continued her words. "I was like this blossom tree in spring- bright and lively, drunk on the beauty of life, foolish in hope of everlasting spring. When you left....spring was over. The tree's blossoms dropped to the floor, and slowly they turned from pink to pale pink to light brown. And they lay there underfoot for people to step on. Now, I am like the tree in winter- hard and cold and brown, its branches bearing no flowers, waiting for spring to come again. And yet, when spring has finally come, its branches remain cold and dead. Sasuke, winter has killed the tree. I have waited too long for you."_

_Sasuke didn't reply. Inside his frozen heart...something was warm...melting. Was Sakura breaking down his barriers?_

_"When you were younger...I could have broken down your barriers." Sakura said suddenly. "But you wanted to keep them there, so I could not succeed. Not ever. Because you wanted to keep those barriers there." Sakura turned to him, and in the afternoon sunlight, he could see her eyes glistening with tears. "Do you hear me, Uchiha? It was all your doing. You did not want to form any bonds....and so your heart remained unhealed."_

Oh, how Sasuke wished that he had listened more carefully that day. Now, he mourned over his last days of peace. Sasuke felt a bitter taste on his tongue as he remembered...

~~_**Flashback**_~~

_"Kill him." Orochimaru ordered, pointing at the servant kneeling on the floor. "Kill him."_

_"What?" Sasuke said in disbelief, though he hid it well. His words were calm and smooth._

_"He has failed in his mission, so you must kill him." Orochimaru cackled, and Sasuke narrowed his eyes in distaste. He had only come to Orochimaru for power, and he would not kill because Orochimaru ordered him to do so._

_"No." Sasuke said._

_Orochimaru's snake-like eyes widened, his pupils dilating in disbelief. "What did you say? KILL HIM." he said softly, in a smooth voice that he used when he was angry._

_Sasuke still wouldn't move. "No." he said again, calmly. With a sneer, Orochimaru drew his sword and sliced off the kneeling man's head. The blood splattered on Sasuke's clothes, but Sasuke didn't move. He was remembering with horror....the streets full of dead people that he knew and loved...Itachi....turning around to face him...eyes red with Sharingan....__**Come back and face me...foolish little brother....when you have these eyes....**__...._

_"You will never be able to kill Itachi unless you are heartless." Orochimaru hissed. Sasuke didn't bother to answer him. With a chill, Sasuke realized that he was close to becoming his brother. Killing people for no reason..._

Even now, as he started to walk toward that gravestone under the cherry tree, his heart was still a little hard. And it would stay that way, because no one else would ever save him from his misery. "Sakura..." Sasuke murmured. "I only killed Orochimaru and Itachi....and that was because I had to. No one else."

Sasuke felt a saltiness on his tongue as he reached the grave and peered down at the tomb and read the words engraved there for the thousandth time. It read

**Sakura Haruno**

_**She healed his heart**_

**Rest in Peace**

And as he listened, the breeze seemed to blow gently in his ears.

_I know, I know._

It almost sounded like Sakura's voice, if you listened carefully.

Sasuke reached up and touched his face, feeling wetness. As the tears rolled down his cheek and landed at the grass before the grave, Sasuke knew who's heart Sakura had healed.

_"You healed my heart, Sakura.. Thank you."_

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**Hey, sorry that I haven't updated in awhile. I've been busy…but I promise that I'll update soon!**

**By the way, I wrote this story like….a long time ago, when I was still interested in writing this stuff. Now I'm working on my own story, not fanfiction. I think this is a little too sappy, but hey, whatever.**

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